Dipa’s historic high in World Championships, finishes fifth

Glasgow, October 31

India’s Dipa Karmakar fifth a very creditable fifth in the women’s individual vault event at the gymnastics World Championships here today.

The Produnova vault is incredibly difficult – it involves a front handspring, after which the gymnast needs to execute two flips in the air before landing. It’s very, very difficult to land on your feet after you have flipped twice in the air.

Karmakar, of course, went for the Produnova in the final Glasgow’s SECC Hydro arena, because this was a very rare opportunity to win a really big medal at the world stage. A medal here would also have qualified her for the Rio Olympic Games.

Karmakar did the handspring the right, she did the two flips in the air right – she even landed on her feet, but she landed in almost a sitting position, and her bottom probably touched the mat for a micro-second. It earned her 15.3000 points.

Karmakar, who had already made history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to reach the final of an individual apparatus event at the World Championships, scored 14.066 in her second attempt. Her second vault involved two sideways twists in the air, but she didn’t land cleanly and had to step off the landing area to regain her balance.

Her average score of 14.683 was good for fifth position.

Maria Paseka of Russia won the gold with 15.666, while Un Jong Hong (North Korea) took the silver at 15.633, and Simone Biles (US) won the bronze at 15.541.

After the first round of jumps, Karmakar was placed fifth. Her second vault had a Difficulty rating of 6.000, and Karmakar’s execution fetched 8.366 points, for a total of 14.066 from her second attempt. This was the seventh-best score among the eight finalists in the second round. But the high score she had achieved with her first vault of the day helped her to keep her overall fifth position in the final.

Karmakar had qualified for the final with the seventh best score among the eight who made it.

These numbers may not appear very impressive to the casual fan of the sport, but in the Indian context, Karmakar’s achievements have been nothing short of groundbreaking. Karmakar had won a bronze medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.